Health researchers have issued a call for urgent action on childhood obesity, on the heels of a report which reveals a sharp increase in obesity rates in Barbados.
Latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that between 2012 and 2022 the number of Barbadian youth aged five to 19 who are overweight or obese rose from 33 per cent to 42 per cent.
Senior lecturer at the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre, Dr. Madhuvanti Murphy disclosed the figures on April 16 at a media conference hosted by the Barbados Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition (BCOPC) at the 3Ws Oval. She told the audience this is cause for concern:
“This is alarming in terms of the fact that it is a trend that is still going up. This trend has been going since the 90s, and it is consistent. And when you happen to see trends like this, it tells us that this is not about individual failures; this is a systemic issue that needs addressing.”
Noting that Barbados’ rate is more than double the global average of 20 per cent, Dr Murphy recommended a whole of society approach to tackling the problem.
“So, what we do know are things like the commercial determinants of unhealthy eating, we know that family units, in some cases, complain about the accessibility of food. The school and the school environment [are] all part of the system that drives obesity in children.
One of the measures adopted to address childhood obesity is the Barbados National School Nutrition Policy, which was launched in 2023. However, Dr. Murphy stressed that the policy must be mandatory in order to be effective.
“What we do know from other parts of the world is that the school nutrition policy or any sort of these policies, to be successful, they need to be mandatory. The recommendations are great, but when they are enforced, and when they are audited, that is when we see the best results for these types of policies.”
Chair of the BCOPC, and head of the Law and Health Research Unit at The UWI Cave Hill, Nicole Foster, expressed similar sentiments, and called for regulations under the Education Act to support the implementation and enforcement of the school nutrition policy.
“Legislation will help ensure consistency, accountability, and protection of children from unhealthy food environments and establish a level playing field for all stakeholders to operate,” Foster said.
Advocates stress the need for decisive action in order to reverse the worrying trend that is placing the nation’s children at risk.
